I just took my 11 month old out for her first ride in my Burley Bee. Everything went fine except for one problem. I can't get her to wear her baby specific helmet. She tries to tug it off and then starts crying until I take it off. So maybe someone can help me with this. Is there a way to ease a pre - toddler into wearing a helmet? Is it the worst thing in the world if she doesn't? I come down on the pro helmet side but the Burley bee seems pretty safe with the harness and aluminum bars and all. Or is this just wishful thinking on my part? Am I a terrible parent if take my daughter out in the trailer without a helmet?
I mentioned that I believe in helmets, however , I would just as soon that this thread not become another helmet debate. Still, feel obligated to quote the debate that I recently had with my daughter on this subject:
Me "Here is your brand new helmet, sweetie. It'll protect your little baby brain!"
Daughter "Dat. Dat. Dat! Waaaaahhhh!"

I advocate helmets for my whole family, except for our 10 month old daughter in the trailer. Here's my logic:

1. She's not going to like a helmet. She will be unhappy and will scream and\or try to take it off resulting in her wearing it improperly.

2. If she's that unhappy and I force her to wear it, I'm teaching her to not enjoy bike rides.

3. She's strapped to a special pad, on a seat suspended in a cage. If the trailer tips on a bump or even flips, she's not going to hit her head.

4. If she is wearing a helmet, and the trailer tips, that's extra weight on her head adding to potential damage to her neck.

5. Since she's still a little baby, I'm taking it easy, extra vigilant to not hit bumps that will rattle her head\body around.

6. FSM forbid, if I'm involved in a crash that defeats the protective cage of the trailer, I'm not sure a helmet is going to make any difference.

Even my wife signs off on this logic, so there must be some merit to it.

I am with KN on this one. Not that I usually disagree with anything he says in particular.

I am also big on helmets but find them to be unnecessary for children until they are on their own bike.

Thank you both so much for these replies. This makes me feel a lot better. I have a choice of hauling my spawn without the helmet ot not biking with her at all. I really like biking with her. It's nice to hear from obviously responsible parents who say it's okay.

I have only done this once so far, but it seemed to work well. I strapped the car seat into the burley with my 7 month old. No helmet. Worked well. She fell asleep within a minute or two, and eventually woke up again and seemed happy.

Yup. You know it's working out when they're happy looking around, then they fall asleep. My only problem is keeping our daughter's head from tilting too much one way or the other once she falls asleep. A helmet certainly wouldn't help that.

We would just roll towels up and have them at the ready and put one on both sides of her head, once she was asleep of course.

The car seat takes care of the head rolling.

I know a mom that likes Burley's "baby snuggler". You can get it ordered through Q -
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/39d ... 43067/1404

I'm going to also 2nd (or 3rd) the car seat idea - seems like there are enough straps in the burley to secure the car seat. The extra protection and 5 point harness are nice.

This spring we put our 4 mo in the burley/car seat and moved the 2.5 yro up to a handlebar seat. The older one used to hate wearing a helmet, the annoyance of a helmet is no match for the fun of riding in the handlebar seat. On her first ride on the handlebar seat for 10mins straight she was waving her arms in the air and kept yelling, "I'M SO HAPPY I'M BIKING"

We have one of those. It helps, but I probably would have skipped it had I not found a discounted one at REI's scratch-and-dent table.

Update:
So I got my little sprout to wear a helmet. I found that she didn't mind wearing a helmet in the walking stroller. ( Just an experiment. I'm not so crazy that I think a baby needs a helmet in a stroller. Passersby probably thought it ws for epilepsy or somethng.)It was something abotut the Burley. With a kid my size their heads rest against the back of the seat in a way that pushes the helemet forward over their noggins and was driving her nuts. In general the hraness system that the Burley comes looks safe but not comfortable. My kid was kind of slouching in there. So I strapped in an old car seat and she looked so much happier. she was even willing to wear the helmet! I realize that in this situation the helmet serves no useful purpose for protection but it's a good habit for her to be in. Thanks for the advice folks.